Vegas winner Kyle Douglas makes World Archery debut during remote competition

Kyle Douglas had the biggest victory of his career at the start of 2020.

The 23-year-old American shot a perfect 900 to book his spot in the last line of the compound championship shootdown at the Vegas Shoot in February – and then outlasted 22 other professional archers in the sudden-death final to collect the tournament’s top prize of 54,000 USD.

Douglas has climbed through the ranks of 3D and field events – previously winning a scholarship for taking the youth title in Vegas – but had never investigated any of World Archery’s competition formats until this season’s remote Indoor Archery World Series.

“I was invited by a few friends to come and shoot," said Douglas, who took part in USA Archery's indoor nationals last year. "With no tournaments going on recently, I wanted to participate in as many events as possible."

Douglas finished second in the December stage, behind only 1999 World Archery Champion Dave Cousins; he tied with reigning Indoor Archery World Series Champion Mike Schloesser on 599, just one point away from perfection.

(Incidentally, Dave and Mike are also former winners of the Vegas Shoot.)

The critical difference in format between World Archery and the Vegas round is that the 10-ring for compound archers is 2 centimetres in diameter, rather than 4.

“I was very happy with 599," Douglas said. "I know that in practice I can expect a good score like that on a somewhat regular basis, so it felt good to be able to still maintain a good score under tournament pressure."

Douglas plans to shoot at stage 3 of the World Series in January and said he would like to shoot more World Archery-style events in the future. 

"At this point, the only thing that has been holding me back is my current travel schedule and the expense of travelling to events overseas," he said.

Since his Las Vegas victory almost a year ago, and despite the past year being disrupted by the COVID-19 pandemic, Doublas has been busy, opening his own pro shop – Douglas Archery – in Ogden, Utah.

(That’s the same city of Odgen that hosted a stage of the Archery World Cup from 2010 to 2012.)

“Vegas last year still seems like a dream. It is still hard to believe that it even happened,” Douglas said. “I always knew that I was capable of winning, but it all came together much sooner than I had expected. Winning Vegas has changed a lot of things for me and has opened a bunch of new doors.”

A return to Vegas will have to wait after it was announced in December that the event would not be taking place in its normal February slot in 2021. Instead, this year’s tournament will split, with a remote competition for the amateur flight divisions and the professional championship events being postponed until later in the year.

The National Field Archery Association, which organises Vegas, has announced a replacement competition – the all-new Rushmore Rumble – at its headquarters in Yankton, USA, for 12-14 February.

Yankton is also scheduled to host the Hyundai Archery World Championships in 2021 and the World Archery Field Championships in 2022.

The third stage of the remote Indoor Archery World Series is scheduled for 15-17 January. Registration is open until midnight CET on 10 January.

The 2021 Indoor Archery World Series is a mass-participation circuit of live and online archery tournaments.